The present invention relates to storage racks, and more particularly to collapsible storage racks.
In a number of industries, products are shipped on wheeled racks from the manufacturer to a retailer or distributor. The wheeled racks have a frame mounted on wheels and a number of shelves mounted to the frame. The racks are loaded with products, rolled into a truck, and shipped to the destination. At the destination, the racks are rolled off the truck so that the product can be unloaded from the racks to a separate display or can be displayed and sold directly from the racks in the store. The racks are then collected by the manufacturer for reuse, usually in the same truck that brought the racks to the destination. One particular application of wheeled racks as described above is in the distribution and sale of greenhouse industry plants.
Wheeled racks can be designed to collapse or fold once the rack has been emptied. This allows the user to store the empty rack in a smaller space, which also allows more space in the truck during return shipments. There are numerous types of collapsible racks. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,131,547 issued Jul. 21, 1992 to Goldberg entitled "Collapsible Storage Rack." However, existing collapsible rack designs can require substantial disassembly of the racks or tedious and strenuous effort to collapse the rack. At least one type of collapsible rack can be folded together in parallelogram fashion; however, it is expensive and requires a special type of shelf consisting of parallel rods, which limit the usefulness of the shelves.